ESL and Complexity comment on day one tech pause fiasco

Computer crashes are something to be expected in a massive LAN event, as they have done time and time before. The scene has come a long way in recognizing when a crash occurs and the best way to respond to one. Rarely a crash can cause controversy, but that's exactly what happened on day one of the IEM Katowice Play-In when Complexity faced BIG on Anubis.

During the 8th round, Ricky "floppy" Kemery experienced a total PC crash. In an interview with Dust2.us following their 16-12 loss, Complexity's Justin "FaNg" Coakley claimed that his crashed teammate frantically screamed for the admin's attention to call off the round. FaNg's fury related to the inability of anyone on his team to hear floppy shouting for an admin due to him being disconnected from TeamSpeak.

FaNg also claimed that their coach Tiaan "T.c" Coertzen was trying in vain to notify the admin of the technical issue. From the perspective of the ESL stream, it's clear to see FaNg's confusion and frustration at the moment he died in the round. The 20-year-old Canadian concluded his tirade on the situation by saying "It's pathetic from the tournament".

There are very clear rules about how to notify and alert the game should a PC crash occur. ESL's rulebook states in section 2.10.3 on match interruptions:

If the issue takes place before any damage or significant gameplay has occurred, and the opponent or
referee has been immediately notified, the round will be restored.

Dust2.us watched the GOTV of the game to find the exact time that floppy's PC crashed and compared it to the first instance of damage dealt. At 5-2 to BIG, FaNg's death in mid was the first damage dealt at 1:34, just 21 seconds into the round. During the replay of the round on GOTV, it is clear to see that floppy's PC crashes at 1:45. That gives an 11-second window from the point of the crash to FaNg's death. Dust2.us also understands from sources close to the situation that the time frame of shouting for the tech is slightly shorter as floppy came to the realization couldn't type in-game a few seconds after the crash.

Following the loss, where Complexity mounted a comeback after being down 11-4 at halftime, floppy tweeted about the situation saying that he couldn't type .tech due to the crash. The claim about shouting to the admin from the side of Complexity came not just from FaNg, but also T.c who bluntly responded:

Complexity's General Manager Graham "messioso" Pitt has since responded to Dust2.us when asked to explain the situation versus BIG, their thoughts on how ESL handled the situation and why the players were upset with how things were handled:

So I think by now everyone knows the basics, floppy's game crashes near the start of a round and the guys tried to call a tech pause. We played out the round but expected it to be restarted. ESL declined that and naturally the guys were pretty upset both during and post-game. After the game I was able to talk to ESL and we reviewed all the evidence to try and understand what had happened. Ultimately we came to a conclusion that we don't necessarily agree on the outcome of the decision, but I can see how they arrived at their decision based on their intrepretation of the rules. It came down to how and when the admin was notified of the technical issue and both ESL and Complexity agreed on some ideal changes moving forward to avoid this happening in the future.

ESL has also echoed the sentiments of Complexity, stating:

We have talked with Complexity on the situation and went through the decision with them. Whilst they do not agree with our decision, they can understand as to why the decision was made at the time.

While no one can say with any certainty whether or not Complexity would have beaten BIG, the issue that arose clearly caused a difference in opinions regarding how it was handled. After deliberations between the two sides, Complexity's stating that both sides "agreed on some ideal changes moving forward to avoid this happening in the future" can be seen as a positive outcome overall.